What if I were in 1861?

So, yeah, we have lots of problems in 2011: The debt, unemployment, war, the Middle East, taxes, etc.

All important. All will continue to be discussed with great concern and energy here on Bearing Drift.

But in addition to all the issues of state, we have begun a history blog. We’re jumping into the really way-back-machine and offering you a blog of events as they happened in 1861-65 from a Virginia Republican’s perspective.

Popular belief is that there are “Red” states and “Blue” states today – and that nobody in those states has a differing opinion from that political orthodoxy. That’s horse-pucky and we all know it. If it weren’t, there would be no “All Politics is Local” blog in Virginia. 🙂

Same is true during the Civil War. Especially in Virginia.

While this Commonwealth hosted the capitol of the confederacy and had more battles in it than any other state, there were plenty here that sympathized with the cause of union and certainly plenty that were sympathetic to the Republican party.

Therefore, to honor the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War, this decidedly conservative and pro-Republican blog, will endeavor to stay true to history (and our own political beliefs), by throwing itself 150 years into the past in order to blog the Civil War as it happened in Virginia AS A REPUBLICAN.

We will stay true to our party’s ideology and perspective.

This is a conservative blog. We believe in liberty, personal responsibility, free enterprise, and constitutional principles. We would not be staying true to ourselves and our desire to maintain this way of life, if we did not sympathize with Union and condemn slavery.

Therefore, we’ve started the blog “Damn the Torpedoes“, which will chronicle the Civil War for the next four years.

The book we will rely on for most of our research is E.B. Long’s “Civil War: Day by Day“. We will also pay close attention to the Washington Post blog, “A House Divided” and New York Times blog, “Disunion“. Not to mention the fact that this is Virginia…we’ll be bringing you first-hand accounts from a battlefield near you!